Catherine the Great

Peter the Great founded St Petersburg. But the city gained much of its grandeur & splendour under the rule of Catherine the Great. St Petersburg is filled with stunning palaces, government buildings & churches, many of which were commissioned by her. It was her that transformed St Petersburg into one of Europe's grandest capitals.


Statue of Catherine the Great


At her heels are some of her renowned statesmen.. & 3 of her lovers. No kidding

Catherine was the daughter of a German Prince. At age 15, she went to Russia to marry PeterIII, the nephew & heir of Empress Elizabeth (daughter of Peter the Great) Catherine = Grand niece-in-law of Peter the Great.

The marriage proved unsuccessful — due to PeterIII's impotence and mental immaturity (he may not have consummated it for twelve years?!) While Peter took a mistress, Catherine carried on liaisons with a few nobilities of the Russian Court. She also became friends with the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced Catherine to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband.

6 months after PeterIII ascended the throne, she overthrew him in a coup led by one of her then lovers. Poor PeterIII was then murdered shortly after.

Catherine the Great then ruled Russia for 34 years until her death at age 67 (longer than any Russian emperor) - the longest reign after the establishment of the Russian Empire in 1721. She was considered to be one of the greatest art collectors of all time. Her vast collections of painting forms the core of the present-day Hermitage collection.

AH FAT SALUTES HER!!

reference: Lonely Planet Russia & Belarus, 3rd edition

GETTING LOST

I love getting lost in a foreign land. I love the feeling of not knowing what to expect. The sights & sounds I come across never failed to amaze me.
Here are some gems that I stumbled upon while I was “lost”. After some intensive research on the internet, I managed to figure out what most of them are...

11 SEPT 06: ST PETERSBURG
On my way to look for the Transfiguration Cathedral (which i never found)

1. Narva Triumphal Arch
(http://www.saint-petersburg.com/monuments/narva-gate.asp)




2. Unknown Church
After all the gold & glitter of the St Petersburg churches this simple, understated church was like a breathe of fresh air.



Unfortunately, in spite of my best efforts, I never managed to get the name of this church.


15 SEPT 06: MOSCOW
On my way to look for this:
Church of the Trinity in Nikitniki




At times, I walked around in circles hopelessly lost & had to hop into trams to seek shelter from the bitter Baltic winds.

sidetrack: most of my photos looked nice & sunny but there were times when the clouds conquered the sun & everything looked like this:


Anyway... as rewards for my suffering, I saw these:

1. Watermelons!


2. Kotelnicheskaya apartment block
One of Stalin's "Seven Gothic Sisters"




3. View of the Kremlin from across the Moscow River


4. The St George's Church
Almost mistook this for the Church of Trinity in Nikitniki


5. Children's World!!



20 SEPT 06: BERLIN

Couldn't decide where to go so just walked around aimlessly & found:
1. Random residential building


Looking for the H&M boutique. Instead stumbled upon...
2. The Berlin Zoo
It's a REAL zoo - Right in the heart of the city!

The sights here were just a small fraction of what I saw while "lost"... Moving forward, I hope that each time I travel, I will have the opportunity to get lost again & again & again...

Disclaimer: I do not like getting lost while lugging a 10kg backpack & trying to locate a hostel or train station at the same time. Apart from not being able to fit into my pants due to too many potato chips, this is one of the shittest things one has to experience.

07 Sept 06: DAY 1 ST PETERSBURG

Took me almost 3 bloody hrs to find the damn hostel. side-track: it was during this time I got a sms from HLJ in Spore telling me she is attached haha!
Anyway I felt like such a loser for getting lost... until i got to the hostel & found out that most of the people there went through the same thing! Guess the problem didn't lie with me!

Very basic hostel, a little old, clean & has a nice bathroom.



After dumping my stuff, I went for my 1st meal in what would become my fav cafe in Russia:




My 1st "meal": Had a drink that is like a dark chocolate sauce plus "mystery pie". YUMMY!!


Trivial: No one speaks any English in Russia. I mean NO ONE. Nothing (not even signs in major tourist spots!) is in English. I am really in a foreign land!! I love it!

90% of the time, I ordered food by pointing at photographs or at some other customer's plate. Every meal is a surprise. I love surprises.

DAY 1 SIGHTSEEING:
Took a walk along the historic heart of St Petersburg.


START: DVORTSOVAYA PLOSHCHAD (PALACE SQUARE): It was across Palace Sq that the revolutionaries stormed the Winter Palace in 1917 & the Tsarist were overthrown .


Facing Palace Sq is THE famous WINTER PALACE.
Home of Catherine the Great - the horniest queen I know.
The Hermitage Museum is now set here.



Entrance to of the New Hermitage - One of the many buildings in St Petersburg that has a facade supported by semi-naked musclemen.


I soon found out over the next few days, that Catherine the Great REALLY LOVED buildings with facades supported by semi-naked musclemen


Along the Moyka River



My 1st glimpse of the Church on Spilled Blood.
Such a stunning setting for their wedding photos...the Russians are so fortunate


Observation: Russians take wedding photos accompanied by friends & relatives. They also seem to have a lot of fun taking the photos!

Went photo crazy at the Church on Spilled Blood:

07 Sept 06: My 1st step into Russia

1st stop in Russia: St Petersburg.

Length of travel: 13 Hrs from Riga

Mode of travel: Overnight Train
2nd class 4-berth compartment (aka coupe) but train wasn't full so there were only 2 occupants in the coupe. Yippee!





Train companion: Sweet old russian lady living in Riga, on her way to St Petersburg to visit her grandchildren (tried to practise a bit of Russian on her). Thats her in the photo.



Expectations: Worst scenerio possible -
Border guards give me trouble with my visa/ passport... robbery on the train.. dirty beds... dirty toliets... dead body underneath my bunk... oh yes according to my best friedns: kidnapped to be torture victim of bored rich men (think the movie Hostel). This list goes on & on.

When we got to the Russian border, I actually felt a little scared.

Reality: Best & most comfortable overnight train ride of my entire life
The border guard even told to HAVE A GOOD TRIP!
It was a (disappointingly?!) smooth start to my trip. No dramatic adventures to boost about! DAMN!!!

7 mths later….

7 months after my Russia trip: Promise to self: I will update my trip blog on weekends… I will sort out & develop the photographs. I will not waste my weekends…. I will not waste my weekends…. I will not waste my weekends….

Trip Summary - favorite sights

The original intention of this blog is to update it DAILY during my trip. Obviously that did not happen...
What I will do is compile a list of my "Favourites".

FAVOURITE SIGHTS
It is so hard to make a decision (except for No 1...That one was no fight!).
ALL the sights I visited are special to me.
After much dilemma, I finally managed to list down my top 5 fav:

1. RED SQUARE - Moscow, Russia
THE place I have dreamt about visiting for years. THIS was what I went to Russia for.
And I was not disappointed: The Red Square lived up to all the hype.

Main sights that surround the Red Square are :
a) St Basil Cathedral
b) GUM
c) State History Museum
d) Lenin's Tomb


The Red Square at Night. I stayed at the area from 4pm all the way till 9pm just to see it at night!!!


a) The St Basil's Cathedral
Commanding the red square from the southern end: This is Russia's most famous symbol - If you watch any CNN's "live from Moscow" reports, this is the backdrop.


The St Basils at night



b) GUM - Gosudarstvenny University Magazin aka State Department Store. Built in the 19th century. Has the most amazing collection of branded goods. There are mink BOUTIQUES in there.


GUM at night



c) State History Museum.
At the Northern end of the square, facing the St Basil's Cathedral. Looks quite "Disney" to me :)



d) Lenin's Tomb. (Took this photo from the entrance of GUM).

Ok the tomb is supposed to be opened to the public daily from 10am to 1pm... Lets just say that it was NEVER opened to visitors during my visit.

The wall behind the tomb is part of the wall surrounding the Kremlin. I have no idea what the yellow building is.. But its also part of the Kremlin.
(PS: Kremlin is the Russian equivalent of the White House)



2. HOUSE OF SOVIETS - St Petersburg, Russia

This building sums up "STALINIST".

It was intended to be the administrative centre of Leningrad (old name of St Petersburg) & was build with Stalin's neoclassical taste in mind, complete with all the bas-reliefs & columns.
This is the Soviet side of Russia I have been looking for.

That's a statue of Lenin by the way.


Close up of the bas-relief.
Doesn't it scream SOVIET??!!!




3. MEMORIAL TO THE MURDERED JEWS OF EUROPE - Berlin, Germany
The memorial brought me to tears. I was crying non-stop when viewing the exhibition rooms. Sibei malu

The Field of Stelae
The field is made up of 2,711 concrete stelae.


Visitors can actually enter the field from all sides & walk between the stelae.
The infomation center & the exhibitions rooms are actually underground, below the Field of Stelae.

In one of the rooms, names & short biographies of murdered Jews are read out. At the same time, year of birth & death will be flashed on all 4 walls of the room. To read out all the name & biographies in record will take 6 Years, 7 mths & 27 days.

4. THE HERMITAGE - St Petersburg, Russia
I admit, I am not "museum person". I can only take so much ART... I mean, there are people I know that can spend DAYS visiting the same museum... not me.

But the Hermitage is truly an amazing museum. I was awed not only by its treasures, but also by all the stunning rooms that held the treasures. Hmm... think I will do a section separately on the Hermitage later. Hope you like GOLD :)

See post on the Hermitage

5. ALONG THE GRIBOEDOVA CANEL - St Petersburg, Russia
This canal is situated in the Historic Heart of St Petersburg. Alongside the canal are rows & rows of magnificent buildings.


It reminded me a grander version of Venice.

Church on Spilled Blood
Partly modelled after the St Basils in Moscow. This is The main sight along the Griboedova Canal.

Built between 1883 & 1907 on the spot where Alexander II was blown up by terrorists. (Church on Spilled Blood get it??) This beauty took 24 years to build & 27 more years to restore..... Imagine that...it BETTER be beautiful

Ok that sums up this episode of The adventures of Fatcat... to be continued!